Abstract
What other Native poet besides Simon Ortiz has more than glanced at the structural causes of poverty, looked closely at work culture, seen a connection between Indians and unions, and named both the causes and costs of economic exploitation? What other collection besides Fight Back: For the Sake of the People, for the Sake of the Land critiques capitalism as having values antithetical to Native survival? We need to read this text as a radical political document, powerful both in its language and vision. Imaginatively using a range of literary forms, Ortiz exposes capitalism’s impact on workers, their families, the Acoma community, and the United States as a whole.1 The poems and prose pieces depict the racial and economic exploitation Native peoples continue to experience, but they also celebrate the people’s continuance. While addressing issues of identity and tradition common to much contemporary Native literature, Fight Back distinguishes itself by doing this with a structural critique of economic relations and work culture.
just another worker, just another Indian.
—Simon Ortiz, “What I Meant”
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© 2009 Reginald Dyck and Cheli Reutter
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Dyck, R. (2009). Indigenous Ways of Knowing Capitalism in Simon Ortiz’s Fight Back. In: Dyck, R., Reutter, C. (eds) Crisscrossing Borders in Literature of the American West. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230619548_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230619548_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
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